2017 World Car of the Year finalists announcedEuropean vehicles dominate the list

The 2017 World Car of the Year (WCOTY) finalists have been announced, and once again the list is dominated by models from European brands.

There are six Car of the Year awards up for grabs this year, including the main prize, as well as gongs for the following categories: luxury, performance, car design, green, and urban. The Urban Car of the Year prize is new for 2017, and is only open to cars under four metres in length.

Depending on how you want to slice and dice things, there’s either a four-to-one or three-to-two split for the honours in the Urban COTY award, with Europe’s BMW i3, Citroen C3 and Smart ForTwo Cabriolet battling it out against Japan’s Suzuki Ignis and the Ford Ka+.

The European market Ka+ was developed for emerging markets, like South Africa, Brazil and India, and originally went on sale in 2015 as either the Ka or Figo. Models bound for Europe have been slightly tweaked in accordance with continental preferences.